Safe Discharge Of Stored Electricity In Capacitors

Seaward Electronic Ltd, represented in Australia by Emona Instruments, has introduced the first instrument of its type for the safe discharge of stored energy in large capacitors and electrically charged equipment.

The SD300 has been specifically designed to enable engineers to safely discharge high power capacitors used for power factor correction and energy storage applications in the power generation, petrochemical, oil and gas, processing and motor drive control industries.

No official or recognised means of safely discharging large capacitors in these applications exists and the SD300 unit incorporates a number of special features to counter the common but unauthorised and highly dangerous practice of discharging high power capacitors with wires or screwdrivers.

The portable new SD300 is a highly innovative, self-contained safe discharge device that has been designed to protect the operator or test engineer from danger and the equipment under test from potential damage.

Seaward’s SD300 is a long life battery powered tester that has been designed for use in situations with a maximum voltage of 1000V DC and maximum capacitance of 1200uF.

The unique failsafe design of the SD300 incorporates a two-handed push button operation to initiate and maintain the energy discharge, ensuring that the operator cannot come into contact with the live circuit. In addition, the operator is totally isolated from the discharged energy by a fully insulated and robust instrument case rated at IP66.

The totally self contained instrument comes complete with fully shrouded fused test leads and includes an inbuilt test lead and fuse proving facility. Other safety features include an automatic pre-use self test, protection against prolonged connection to live operating circuits and monitoring of critical component temperatures with automatic cut off.

Once activated, the stored energy is discharged in 30 seconds or less and both analogue meters and LEDs provide a visual indication of the state of the stored energy. The displays also indicate whether the discharged current is AC or DC and the polarity.

As the first instrument of its type the SD300 provides an innovative and highly effective solution for the safe discharge of electrically charged equipment.